Vampire Blood

 the first time they meet.  I’ve seen lots of different problems beset test automation efforts. I’ve worked at many software companies, big and sll. And I’ve talked to a people from many other companies. This paper will present ways to avoid these problems. But first we need to understand them. Let me illustrate with a fable. Once upon a time, we have a software project that needs test automation. Everyone on the team agrees that this is the thing to do. The manager of this project is Anita Delegate. She reviews the different test tools available, selects one and purchases several copies. She assigns one of her staff, Jerry Overworked, the job of automating the tests. Jerry has many other responsibilities, but between these, he tries out the new tool. He has trouble getting it to work with their product. The tool is complicated and hard to configure. He has to make several calls to the customer support line. He eventually realizes that they need an expert to set it up right and figure out what the problem is. After more phone calls, they finally send an expert. He arrives, figures out the problem and gets things working. Excellent. But many months have passed, and they still have no automation. Jerry refuses to work on the project any further, fearing that it will never be anything but a time sink.